Host software, including security software, residing on a machine is often used to control, monitor, and/or manage a hardware resource. However, software is traditionally easily circumvented and/or compromised through corruption or attack. For example, software firewalls in network environments are subject to threat from malware, denial of service attacks, hacking, and even a user disrupting the function of the software (e.g., turning it off, changing settings). Attacks and/or malware may circumvent the software, for example a software firewall, and thus operate undetected by the software. The software may keep statistics/data relating to the performance of the hardware, but the statistics may be only as accurate as the software is immune from compromise, which, as stated above, is traditionally fairly easy.